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Important update from TheSchoolRun

For the past 13 years, TheSchoolRun has been run by a small team of mums working from home, dedicated to providing quality educational resources to primary school parents. Unfortunately, rising supplier costs and falling revenue have made it impossible for us to continue operating, and we’ve had to make the difficult decision to close. The good news: We’ve arranged for another educational provider to take over many of our resources. These will be hosted on a new portal, where the content will be updated and expanded to support your child’s learning.

What this means for subscribers:

  • Your subscription is still active, and for now, you can keep using the website as normal — just log in with your usual details to access all our articles and resources*.
  • In a few months, all resources will move to the new portal. You’ll continue to have access there until your subscription ends. We’ll send you full details nearer the time.
  • As a thank you for your support, we’ll also be sending you 16 primary school eBooks (worth £108.84) to download and keep.

A few changes to be aware of:

  • The Learning Journey weekly email has ended, but your child’s plan will still be updated on your dashboard each Monday. Just log in to see the recommended worksheets.
  • The 11+ weekly emails have now ended. We sent you all the remaining emails in the series at the end of March — please check your inbox (and spam folder) if you haven’t seen them. You can also follow the full programme here: 11+ Learning Journey.

If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected]. Thank you for being part of our journey it’s been a privilege to support your family’s learning.

*If you need to reset your password, it will still work as usual. Please check your spam folder if the reset email doesn’t appear in your inbox.

How to use a SATs past paper: KS2 science

Father and son homework time
Although your child will no longer sit the KS2 SATs science test, you can still help them develop their skills by practising on a past paper together. Our teacher-tips guide explains how to administer the test at home.

After 2022, the rules around science testing within KS2 SATs changed. Now, all schools will get results from teacher assessment rather than formal testing. 

If your child is not taking the KS2 Science SAT, using test papers and worksheets is a good way to see how well they understand what they’ve been learning. You’ll also be able to identify which areas your child may need support with.

Test A

Children will need:

• A pen or pencil
• A sharp pencil, for drawings
• A rubber (optional)

Give your child 45 minutes to do this test.

Read the page entitled ‘Instructions’ to your child.

Explain that they will need to work through each question carefully. They need to leave out any questions they can’t do, and then they can return to them later if they have time.

You may clarify instructions, but you must not help your child with the substance of a question.

You must not help your child with spellings.

Remember to give your child time reminders throughout the test.

Test B

Follow the same instructions as given for Test A. Test B also takes 45 minutes to complete.

Marking

To mark your child’s paper, you can download the Teacher’s mark scheme. This goes through every question, and explains how each question should be marked based on the answers your child has given.

For top marks, examiners are looking for:

• Clear, unambiguous answers
• Complete explanations, when required
• Details that show an understanding of terminology and processes